Reception/Year 1 - Mr Gray

A warm welcome to Reception/Year1!

I am thrilled to be teaching Reception and Year 1 this year and look forward to taking all the children on a fantastic learning journey. Alongside myself, will be Miss Urey and Miss Jefferies. We will also be joined by Mrs Urey for a few afternoons a week.

Below you will find some important information about Year 1 and Reception. During each half term, I will also be updating the class page with important curriculum information and work that the children have completed. On each half termly page, you can also find important dates for our class, however, please do ensure you also refer to the Friday feature for key school events.

Reading:This is a really important part of your child's development and helps them across all curriculum areas. At St Matthew's, we love reading and encourage the children to read for pleasure at home at least twice a week. Parents are asked to record this in the reading journal. It is important to check that you children are sounding ou, blending then reading each word and sentence to develop their reading fluency.Alongside this reading for pleasure, we also take part in 2 x weekly reading lessons within class, where the children answer comprehension questions based on what they have read.

Maths: Being a confident mathematician is an important life skill and one way in which children can become more confident is to be fluent in their times tables. Children will practise their times tables weekly in class, however, any extra opportunity to practise is always encouraged! This can be done using their Times Tables Rockstars Login, where they can play engaging games and score points to progress their Rockstar status! Children should begin with learning the 2 and 10 times table and then move on to the 5 times table.

Additionally, children can also;

practise number pairs to 10

e.g. (1) 4+6 = 10

e.g. (2) 4+6 = 10

practise counting forwards and backwards in groups of 1 or 2

forming their numbers correctly

P.E.:PE is a fundamental part of our curriculum and gives children to opportunity to learn new skills and work as part of a team outside the classroom environment. PE slots change regularly so please ensure your child's PE kit is brought into school on a Monday and taken home on a Friday. Children will take part in 2 x PE lessons a week and need both indoor and outdoor kit throughout the year. We have a limited supply of spare kit and as such, missing PE kit will be monitored to ensure that children are accessing the full curriculum.